U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK): “Governor Hoeven, the thing I was going to bring up is there’s a lot of discussion, when you talk about your offset capabilities there, and what you’re doing, that’s great. We’re doing somewhat the same thing, although most of ours is marginal production. But there is a, I’d suggest to you, the use of hydraulic fracturing is necessary in your state to be able to explore, to retrieve all these oil capabilities.”

Gov. John Hoeven (R-ND): “It’s absolutely vital. You know, you mention some of these new formations. They are not, uh, the oil isn’t connected. You’ve got to go underground. And you’re talking two miles underground. And make a fracture in order to get the oil to flow. That’s vitally important.”

U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK): “I wanted to get that into the record, because there are some efforts to do away with hydraulic fracturing, and it would be devastating.”

On energy, Boren said, “The cap and trade bill is really the worst piece of legislation I’ve seen since I’ve been there. It raises energy prices on businesses, raises electric bills on families, and it even raises gasoline prices in the middle of a recession. And, it makes America less competitive in the global economy.”

Fracking could become more prevalent in North Dakota due to the oil industry’s increased interest and aspirations for the Bakken and Three Forks-Sanish oil formations.

“That bill would be a disaster for us,” Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. said. “Hydraulic fracturing is a very important part of being able to explore and drill for oil in the Bakken formation.”

“The bill is potentially very threatening to the oil exploration and recovery activity underway in North Dakota,” [Rep. Earl] Pomeroy [D-N.D.] said. “It’s one of these pieces of legislation that is a solution in search of a problem.”